Nurturing Our Inner Life In Christ

August 12, 2018

In a short 120 pages Calvin Miller, the author of The Singer Trilogy turns the lens of his deeply reflective pastors heart on to the subject of deepening the believers intimate communion with Christ in his book The Table Of Inwardness (IVP, 1984).

The book begins with a Calvin Miler original poem titled THE TABLE which sets the stage well for a deeply reflective discussion on creating space and time for nurturing union with Christ. Each of the seven chapters begin with thought provoking quotes like “When you are able to create a lonely place in the middle of your actions and concerns, your success and failures slowly can lose some of their power over you” Henri J. M. Nouwen.

Each chapter is incredibly thought provoking and need to be read slowly and deliberately for maximum impact. Chapter One is themed The Issue of Inwardness. Brother Lawrence is featured as is a section on the dangers of inward reflection. Chapter Two discusses Barriers To The Inward Journey with the leading metaphor being developing spiritual hunger in light of the temptations to substitute sex, and power. Chapter 3 titled, the Needles Eye confronts consumerism and the need to develop the spiritual discipline of renunciation. Chapter four through 7 deal with the sufficiency of Christ, Prayer, obedience and “foreverness”.

This book came into my hands when I needed its timely reminders and opportunities to reflect below the shallow surface of many of the devotion books I had been reading. I recommend this book as I do all of Calvin Miller’s books. The older I get the smarter Calvin Miller’s writing appear. Which said more about my development than Calvin’s.

Read this book and create space to deeply respond and your walk with Christ will be positively impacted!